HAFEEZANWAR
04-12-07, 07:04 PM
Ataturk's Sharshaf
The Veil of Latifa
A Veil in Common A ferocious campaign has started against Hayrünnisa Gul, the first wife of a Turkish president to enter the presidential palace at Cankaya in a veil. Yet Turkish secularists fail to notice that Lâtife Usakl?gil, wife of the very founder of the secular Republic of Turkey (Mustafa Kemal Ataturk), also was veiled. She used to wear the famous Turkish sharshaf as they call it there that looks like the black `abayah common in the Gulf area, and it is still widespread in many Turkish conservative and religious areas, especially in Istanbul.
Before Ataturk's coup against the Islamic Caliphate and his call to take off the veil, the sharshaf was the official Turkish dress for women, and his wife Lâtife used to wear it. The official pictures of the founder of the Turkish state show Lâtife was veiled and wore the black sharshaf showing only her face and covering her whole body. That was before Lâtife took off her veil and substituted it for a European dress that revealed her hair and part of her shoulders.
Veil Gracing the Palace
As Hayrünnisa Gul entered the presidential palace for the first time on Thursday, August 15, 2007, her modern colorful veil became the lawful heir to Lâtife's black sharshaf. Eighty-three years after the secular ban of the veil, it returns to grace the presidential palace. Meanwhile, veiled Turkish women wait for the veil to be allowed into universities and government offices according to the constitutional amendments that the Justice and Development Party (in Turkish: Adalet Ve Kalkinma Partisi or AKP) is working on.
Despite secular laws that ban wearing the veil in schools, universities, and government offices, the sharshaf is still common in different Turkish cities, and many Turkish women continue to wear the veil. The percentage of veiled women has even reached 65 percent of Turkish women since the religious renaissance in the eighties of the last century. Some of them wear the old sharshaf, but the majority wear the modern, colored veil.
Origin of the Sharshaf.
Turkish writer Dafna Biraq confirmed in a talk with IslamOnline. net that the sharshaf has remained since the Ottoman era and has never changed. It is still found in religious and conservative areas of Turkey especially the eastern cities and in the capital Istanbul, particularly the Fatih area. This type of dress, she says, is usually black or navy blue covering the whole body from head to toe.
Birag added, "the picture showing Ataturk's wife unveiled beside her husband kept appearing in preparatory school books, but when the Justice Party took charge of the government, specifically in 2005, the picture was changed and the old one of Ataturk and his veiled wife was placed instead. This lead one of the five authors of the book - an extreme secularist - to file a lawsuit asking for the invalidation of the adjustments made to the book including one concerning the issue of the Armenians whom he defends in the book."
Half of MPs' Wives Veiled.
According to the statistics published in the Turkish daily Hurriyet, the veil is visible in almost all of the country's institutions since the victory of the Justice Party and the Refah (Welfare) Party prior to it. Emine, Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's wife, became the second veiled wife of a Turkish prime minister after Arbakan's wife. Statistics also reveal that out of 550 members of parliament, the wives of 235 MPs in the new parliament elected in July 22, 2007, are veiled.
It is well known that Turkish women went on wearing the veil until 1925 when the battle against hijab started in Turkey. Following the foundation of the secular government by President Ataturk, several decisions were passed, the most important of which is a law preventing veiled women from entering universities or working in government institutions. Accordingly, veiled students and government employees were either dismissed or forced to take off the veil.
The story goes that every academic year, Turkish armed forces would come and besiege university campuses to prevent veiled students from entering, and female police forces would expel them out of the university using force. Many of them were imprisoned and faced harsh punishment that lead many female university students to study abroad, including the daughter of the current prime minister Erdogan, because of the banning of the veil in the university of their homeland!
And despite the Islamic Justice and Development Party's rule in 2002, the veil is still banned in universities and government offices until this day regardless of the 65 percent of veiled Turkish women. However, Turkish sources have passed the information that the amendments that the party is currently busy preparing would allow freedom of dress for Turkish women in government offices, schools, and universities which means a return of the veil to Turkey after 83 years.
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Muhammad Gamal Arafa is a counselor to the Arabic Social Desk and a political analyst for IslamOnline. net.
http://www.islamonl ine.net/servlet/ Satellite? c=Article_ C&cid=1188044075 842&pagename= Zone-English- Family%2FFYELayo ut
-------------------------
By Muhammad Gamal Arafa
Translated By Yosra Mostafa
================================================
SEARCH FROM THE ABOVE WEB SITE/SOURCE
======================
SEARCH
BY MUHAMMED A. HAFEEZ
B.COM.,
HYDERABAD, INDIA.,
EMAIL ; hafeezanwar@yahoo.com
==================================================
The Veil of Latifa
A Veil in Common A ferocious campaign has started against Hayrünnisa Gul, the first wife of a Turkish president to enter the presidential palace at Cankaya in a veil. Yet Turkish secularists fail to notice that Lâtife Usakl?gil, wife of the very founder of the secular Republic of Turkey (Mustafa Kemal Ataturk), also was veiled. She used to wear the famous Turkish sharshaf as they call it there that looks like the black `abayah common in the Gulf area, and it is still widespread in many Turkish conservative and religious areas, especially in Istanbul.
Before Ataturk's coup against the Islamic Caliphate and his call to take off the veil, the sharshaf was the official Turkish dress for women, and his wife Lâtife used to wear it. The official pictures of the founder of the Turkish state show Lâtife was veiled and wore the black sharshaf showing only her face and covering her whole body. That was before Lâtife took off her veil and substituted it for a European dress that revealed her hair and part of her shoulders.
Veil Gracing the Palace
As Hayrünnisa Gul entered the presidential palace for the first time on Thursday, August 15, 2007, her modern colorful veil became the lawful heir to Lâtife's black sharshaf. Eighty-three years after the secular ban of the veil, it returns to grace the presidential palace. Meanwhile, veiled Turkish women wait for the veil to be allowed into universities and government offices according to the constitutional amendments that the Justice and Development Party (in Turkish: Adalet Ve Kalkinma Partisi or AKP) is working on.
Despite secular laws that ban wearing the veil in schools, universities, and government offices, the sharshaf is still common in different Turkish cities, and many Turkish women continue to wear the veil. The percentage of veiled women has even reached 65 percent of Turkish women since the religious renaissance in the eighties of the last century. Some of them wear the old sharshaf, but the majority wear the modern, colored veil.
Origin of the Sharshaf.
Turkish writer Dafna Biraq confirmed in a talk with IslamOnline. net that the sharshaf has remained since the Ottoman era and has never changed. It is still found in religious and conservative areas of Turkey especially the eastern cities and in the capital Istanbul, particularly the Fatih area. This type of dress, she says, is usually black or navy blue covering the whole body from head to toe.
Birag added, "the picture showing Ataturk's wife unveiled beside her husband kept appearing in preparatory school books, but when the Justice Party took charge of the government, specifically in 2005, the picture was changed and the old one of Ataturk and his veiled wife was placed instead. This lead one of the five authors of the book - an extreme secularist - to file a lawsuit asking for the invalidation of the adjustments made to the book including one concerning the issue of the Armenians whom he defends in the book."
Half of MPs' Wives Veiled.
According to the statistics published in the Turkish daily Hurriyet, the veil is visible in almost all of the country's institutions since the victory of the Justice Party and the Refah (Welfare) Party prior to it. Emine, Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's wife, became the second veiled wife of a Turkish prime minister after Arbakan's wife. Statistics also reveal that out of 550 members of parliament, the wives of 235 MPs in the new parliament elected in July 22, 2007, are veiled.
It is well known that Turkish women went on wearing the veil until 1925 when the battle against hijab started in Turkey. Following the foundation of the secular government by President Ataturk, several decisions were passed, the most important of which is a law preventing veiled women from entering universities or working in government institutions. Accordingly, veiled students and government employees were either dismissed or forced to take off the veil.
The story goes that every academic year, Turkish armed forces would come and besiege university campuses to prevent veiled students from entering, and female police forces would expel them out of the university using force. Many of them were imprisoned and faced harsh punishment that lead many female university students to study abroad, including the daughter of the current prime minister Erdogan, because of the banning of the veil in the university of their homeland!
And despite the Islamic Justice and Development Party's rule in 2002, the veil is still banned in universities and government offices until this day regardless of the 65 percent of veiled Turkish women. However, Turkish sources have passed the information that the amendments that the party is currently busy preparing would allow freedom of dress for Turkish women in government offices, schools, and universities which means a return of the veil to Turkey after 83 years.
------------ --------- --------- ---
Muhammad Gamal Arafa is a counselor to the Arabic Social Desk and a political analyst for IslamOnline. net.
http://www.islamonl ine.net/servlet/ Satellite? c=Article_ C&cid=1188044075 842&pagename= Zone-English- Family%2FFYELayo ut
-------------------------
By Muhammad Gamal Arafa
Translated By Yosra Mostafa
================================================
SEARCH FROM THE ABOVE WEB SITE/SOURCE
======================
SEARCH
BY MUHAMMED A. HAFEEZ
B.COM.,
HYDERABAD, INDIA.,
EMAIL ; hafeezanwar@yahoo.com
==================================================